hundred others that may be brought off from their Inclination to Libertinism by the same Reasons which those are offended at If indeed we ought always to be afraid of saying any thing that is not generally approv'd we should quickly be oblig'd not only to keep silence but also to suppress many things which are both useful and necessary to Salvation There is no Doctrine in the Gospel how holy soever which some Sect of Christians has not perverted and misused Nay the same is yet done daily All the difficulty then lies in knowing whether the treating concerning this Question of the Inspiration of the Authors of the Bible will occasion more Good or Hurt In it self the Thing is good even by the Concession of those that argue against it and there is nothing but the weakness of some Mens Minds that can render it dangerous Thus then the Good or Evil of this Disquisition depends wholly upon the Event which therefore these Gentlemen ought to suffer us to expect before we acknowledg that we have done ill in publishing this Writing of Mr. N. We must add to this that Mr. N. is not the first that has spoken as he does of the Inspiration of the sacred Writers We see many Proofs of it in his Dissertation And besides the places which he has cited out of some Books of Grotius there are others infinitely more strong and more express in those against Rivet Now after having thus answer'd those that would have had this Writing suppress'd it is necessary to give some satisfaction to those also who complain that the Author has not express'd his Opinion with sufficient clearness I have therefore desir'd Mr. N. to explain it to me himself if it were possible in few words and more distinctly in order to remove those injurious Suspicions that may have risen from any Obscurity in his Writing concerning his Faith and his Piety And these are the Heads to which he has reduc'd his Opinion and wherein he agrees with us In the first place says he I believe that no Prophet either of the Old or New Testament has said any thing in the Name of God or as by his order which God had not effectually order'd him to say nor has undertaken to foretel any thing which God had not indeed truly reveal'd to him and that this cannot be doubted of without great Impiety I have said it expresly in many places of my Treatise In the second place I believe that there is no matter of Fact of an importance related in the History of the Old or New Testament which in effect is not true And that tho there may be some slight Circumstances wherein some of the Historians were mistaken yet we ought nevertheless to look upon that History in general as the truest and most holy History that ever was publish'd amongst Men. I am perswaded that those who writ it were very well inform'd of all they relate and that they had not the least intention to deceive us insomuch that it was impossible they should fall into any considerable Error as neither can we do in believing what they have said And that there may be no Equivocation By a matter of importance I mean all the Commandments that the sacred Historians assure us were given to the Jews by God all the Miracles that are found in the History of the Scripture all the principal Events in that History and generally all the matters of Fact on which our Faith is grounded In the third place I believe with all Christians that all the Doctrines propos'd by the Authors of the Scriptures to Jews and Christians to be believ'd are really and truly Divine Doctrines although it may be suppos'd that they did not immediately learn them from Heaven I am as much perswaded as any Man that there is no sort of reasoning made use of in the dogmatical places of the holy Scripture where the Prophets and Apostles instruct us concerning the Promises or the Will of God that can lead us into Error or into the belief of any thing that is false or contrary to Piety I believe in the fourth place That Jesus Christ was absolutely infallible as well as free from all Sin because of the Godhead that was always united to him and which perpetually inspir'd him insomuch that all that he taught is as certain as if God himself had pronounc'd it I have explain'd this clearly in my Writing In the last place I believe that God has often dictated to the Prophets and to the Apostles the very words which they should use Of this I have also given some Examples In these things I agree with all Christian Divines And I believe further as well as they that these five Heads of our Belief may be undeniably prov'd against Libertines and Atheists by the Authority of Jesus Christ and his Apostles to whom God has born Testimony by an infinite number of Miracles which are more clearly demonstrable to have been really done than any Fact whatsoever of all ancient History For Example it may be prov'd by positive Testimonies of Matters of Fact that Jesus Christ did really rise again from the Dead and that the Apostles had the Gift of Miracles more clearly than it can be prov'd that ever there was a Roman Emperor call'd Trajan If any one conceive that this kind of Evidence is not sufficient to convince us of the Truth of these Facts or that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Miracles of his Apostles do not sufficiently prove without any thing further that they were not Deceivers I confess I understand not what further Proofs can be given of these things unless God should raise in our days a Prophet that should do the same Miracles over again before our Eyes It may be there are some who believe that the holy Spirit gives them inward assurance of the Truth of the Gospel and who imagine that this inward Testimony is a more convincing Proof than all those I have spoken of But as there are not many that have this Belief and as those that have it cannot make use of that pretended inward Testimony to convince another who does not himself feel it we may without troubling our selves further with them leave them to enjoy that Chimerical Satisfaction which their meer Imagination affords them The Authority of the holy Scriptures being thus settl'd I will now shew you wherein it seems to me that the generality of Divines are deceiv'd and in what I am not of their Opinion They affirm that all that is in the sacred Books Histories Prophecies c. has been immediately inspir'd both as to the Matter and Words That all the Books in the Jews Catalogue ought to be reckon'd amongst the inspir'd Books That when the Apostles preach'd the Gospel they were so inspir'd that they could not be deceiv'd not even in a thing of no consequence at all and that they knew at the very first without any exercise either of Reason or Memory what they
I have first observ'd that several great Men and who have pass'd for good Christians have held this Opinion without losing the Reputation they had of Piety There is not a Man of Worth and Honour among the Protestants who will dare to say that Erasmus and Grotius were Libertines and yet both of them defended openly this same Opinion But because there are some Divines who esteem none but those that have been of the Society they live in I will repeat some reremarkable words of a Divine famous amongst the Presbyterians in England and even amongst those on this side the Water It is Mr. Richard Baxter who speaks thus in an English Book translated not long since into Dutch and intituled The Saints everlasting Rest. 22. Though all Scripture be of Divine Authority yet he who believeth but some one Book that containeth the Substance of the Doctrine of Salvation may be sav'd much more they that have doubted but of some particular Books 23. They that take the Scripture to be but the Writings of godly honest Men and so to be only a means of making known Christ having a gradual Precedency to the Writings of other godly Men and do believe in Christ upon those strong Grounds which are drawn from his Doctrine Miracles c. rather than upon the Testimony of the Writing it being purely infallible and divine may yet have a divine and saving Faith 24. Much more those that believe the whole Writing to be of Divine Inspiration where it handleth the Substance but doubt whether God infallibly guided them in every Circumstance And in the next Page 32. The Circumstantials are many of them divine yet so as they have in them something humane as the bringing of St. Paul 's Cloke and the Parchments and as it seems his Counsel about Marriage c. 33. Much more is there something human in the Method and Phrase which is not so immediately divine as the Doctrine 34. Yet is there nothing sinfully humane and therefore nothing false in all 35. But all innocent Imperfection here is in the Method and Phrase which of we deny we must renounce most of our Logick and Rhetorick Nothing can be more expresly said for the Justification of our Friend Those who have a value for Mr. Baxter must forgo their Esteem of him or else not condemn so lightly those who in his Judgment may have a saving Faith together with some Opinions different from those commonly receiv'd It may likewise be observ'd that many of those who have writ of the Truth of the Christian Religion have prov'd it without supposing the particular Inspiration of the Historians of the New Testament to be such as it is ordinarily taken to be as Grotius whose Book has been alike esteem'd by all Parties Which shows that our Belief is not founded upon this Supposition and that consequently one may be a good Christian without admitting it But it is better to represent this by an Example which will give you a more lively Impression of what I aim at I will therefore now indeavour in as few words as is possible to give you the Idea of a Method that seems to me very strong and very proper to convince a Libertine of the Truth of our Religion without once mentioning any thing of particular Inspiration I do not pretend thereby to condemn all other Methods that may be used to the like purpose but it seems to me that this is the simplest of all and subject to the fewest Difficulties You will allow me Sir this small Digression which may perhaps not be unuseful in a time when there are every where so many that doubt of the Truth of the Christian Religion The first and the greatest Objection the Libertines make us is That our Judgments are pre-possess'd which hinders us from being undeceiv'd We say the same of them and maintain that it is nothing but sensual Inclinations that raise those Difficulties in their Minds which would vanish if they examin'd them without Passion It is not just that either they or we should take for granted our Pre-possessions as Principles demonstrated or which need not be demonstrated Let us then act on both sides as if we had not yet espous'd any party and let us urge nothing that is not founded upon Principles which both sides acknowledg It is agreed that there are certain Characters by which we may be assur'd whether a thing has been done or no and by which we may distinguish the Truth or Falshood of a History If we do not agree in that we are Pyrrhoniens or to give it a better Name altogether senseless for none but a Mad-Man can doubt of the Truth of all the Histories in the World But farther we must also agree in another thing which is no less certain It is that there are certain Matters of Fact the Truth whereof is better conceiv'd than it can be prov'd and which are of such a nature that unless a Man be in a proper Disposition of Mind he can hardly be induc'd to believe them For Example If any one should tell us here that the Inquisition of Spain and Italy has approv'd the Works of Calvin and allow'd the People to read them in Spanish and Italian although it is impossible for us to believe it and that we are firmly perswaded of the contrary we should not be able to convince a Person who should be obstinate in maintaining it until we had given him evident Proofs thereof In like manner if there were false Witnesses ready to swear that one of our Friends whose Vertue had been well known to us for divers Years and who but just then was gone out of our Company went then immediately in cold Blood to assassinate a Person unknown to him for no other reason but only to make an Anatomical Dissection of his Body it is certain we should not believe them although it might not be in our Power to prove judicially the contrary It is easy to imagine a thousand Examples of such like Truths which we apprehend better than we can prove That being suppos'd if we come to the Christian Religion there occurs at the very first a difficulty in discerning what are the Doctrines of this Religion for Christians have great Controversies among themselves about their Belief There would be no end of going about to examine all these Controversies Let us therefore suspend our Judgment thereupon and see first wherein all Christians are agreed They all agree for Example that most of the Books of the New Testament are the Writings of those Authors whose Name they bear and who writ them more than sixteen hundred Years ago that the History therein is true and that we ought to obey the Commandments therein contain'd This Obedience may be reduc'd to these general Heads a rendering to God the Service due to him a trusting in his Promises and a keeping his Commandments in what concerns both our selves and our Neighbour But this supposes a Belief of
Advertisement BY THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER FOR the better understanding of these five Letters it seems necessary in a few words to explain the Occasion and Subject of them They are not in French one distinct Volume as they are here made in English but a part of two larger Volumes written in an Epistolary Form The First entituled The Thoughts or Reflections of some Divines in Holland upon Father Simon 's Critical History of the Old Testament The Second A Defence of those Thoughts in Answer to the Prior of Bolleville who is supposed to be also the same Mr. Simon disguised under a borrowed Name The general Design that Mr. Simon drives at in the Critical History of the Old Testament as well as in that of the New which are now both of them published in English is to represent the many Difficulties that are amongst the Learned concerning the Text of the Scriptures and thereby to infer the necessity of receiving the Roman Doctrine of Oral Tradition This Design raised him many Antagonists amongst the Protestants beyond the Seas who have opposed him in their Writings each according to his different Genius or Principles The Book first above mentioned was one of the earliest of that kind and it 's Anonymous Author appears second to none either in Critical Learning or Solid Iudgment But it is not necessary to my purpose in this place to insist upon his particular differences with Mr. Simon in Points of Criticism This only in general is needful to be observed That though on the one side he sufficiently overthrows the pretended necessity of Oral Tradition and on the other side ingenuously acknowledges all the Difficulties that are amongst the Learned about the Text of the Scriptures yet he does not thereupon leave the Iudgment of his Reader in suspence about so weighty a matter but propounds a middle way which he conceives proper to settle in Mens Minds a just esteem of the Scriptures upon a solid Foundation The Scheme or System of this middle way he says he received from his Friend Mr. N. and therefore he gives it not in his own but in his Friend's words It is comprized in the Eleventh and Twelfth Letters of his foresaid Book And because That is a distinct Subject of it self and of more consequence to the generality of Christians than those nice Disputes of Criticism with which he is obliged in following Mr. Simon to fill up the rest of that Volume I have therefore thought fit to translate those two Letters into English They are the two First of these Five and are the Ground and Occasion of the rest The publishing of that Volume of Letters produced an Answer from Mr. Simon or the Prior of Bolleville as he calls himself and further gave opportunity to the Author to learn from several hands whatsoever was objected most materially by others against the fore-mentioned Scheme which he had published in his Friend's words This afforded him occasion in replying to the Prior of Bolleville to insert a further explanation and defence of that Scheme from the hand of the Author as also to justifie himself for having published it and in the last place to remove the great Popular Objection arising from a Iealousy lest that System of Mr. N's should prejudice the Foundation of the Christian Religion I say it prompted him to answer that Objection by giving a solid Demonstration of the Truth of our Religion without interessing it in this Controversy This is done in the Ninth Tenth and Eleventh Letters of his Second Book Entituled A Defence c. And they are the three last of these following Five I have translated them all that the Reader may at once have a full view both of Mr. N's Opinions concerning the Holy Scriptures in the fore-mentioned System of the Objections that have been made against it of the Answers he gives to those Objections and of the Vse that may be made of all in setling the Christian Religion upon a Basis not to be shaken by the Difficulties about the Scripture which the Learned are forced to acknowledg to be insuperable This is all that I think needful to premonish the Reader upon this Subject Only if in the perusal of the two first of these Letters any one should be apt to condemn me for publishing things of this nice concernment in our Language I intreat him to suspend his Censare till he have read the rest and as he goes along to apply unto me the Author's Apology Our Case is the same and I think he has said all that is needful upon it In a word We live in an Age of so much Light that it is not only now as at all times unbecoming the Dignity of such Sacred Truths as the Christian Religion teaches us to build them upon unsound Principles or defend them by Sophistical Arguments but it is also vain to attempt it because impossible to execute The Doctrine of Implicit Faith has lost its Vogue Every Man will judg for himself in matters that concern himself so nearly as these do And nothing is now admitted for Truth that is not built upon the Foundation of Solid Reason Let not therefore any simple-hearted pious Persons be scandalized at these Disquisitions They are not calculated for their Vse But they are absolutely needful for many others who are more Curious and less Religious And that they may be in some measure useful to the Propagation and Advancement of True Religion amongst such is the strong Hope and hearty Desire of the Translator THE FIRST LETTER YOU are desirous Sir that I should inform you more particularly about the thoughts of Mr. N. concerning the Inspiration of the Sacred Writers and you ask me if our Friends do not suspect him to be tainted with Deism He that gave me the Essay which I send you told me nothing of his other Opinions nor of his Manner of Life And for his Thoughts concerning that Divine Inspiration which the Sacred Pen-men received from God it is conceived that from thence he cannot be concluded to be a Deist It is presumed on the contrary without entring into the Examination of what he says that he believes by this Method he better answers the Objections which the Deists and Atheists have used to make against the Stile of Holy Scriptures And it appears by this Essay that he is far from being of their Opinions We ought not always to measure or judg of the extent of any Man's Thoughts in reference to Religion by the manner of his explaining or defending them as if all those who do not defend well their Religion were Men of ill Design that only seemingly defend in order to destroy it 'T is said that the impious Vannini designed to shew there is no God in making as if he would prove there is one But it does not follow from thence that all others do the same who defend or oppose weakly any Opinion Otherwise we must believe many Writers both Catholicks
the Song of Solomon Ruth the Lamentations Ecclesiastes and Esther They believ'd that these Books which they call'd Chetoubim were not inspir'd as the other and therefore they made them a separate part of Scripture distinct from the two former which they believed to be inspir'd This Division is very ancient having been in use in the time of our Lord Luke XXIV 44. and Iosephus owns it in his first Book against Appion which makes me believe that this Opinion of the Jews is grounded upon the Judgment that those who collected the Books of their Canon made of them It is certain Daniel is truly a Prophet as well as Isaiah but it is likely they have rank'd his Book among the Chetoubim only because it was brought out of Caldea after the Collection was made and perhaps because being written in Chaldean it was in part translated into Hebrew by some others as some of the Learned have conjectur'd For the other Writings which make up this Division of the Scripture being but Histories or Books of Morality or Songs they had reason to determine that there was nothing of Prophetic in them at least not of the same kind of Prophecy with that of Isaiah and others who are properly call'd Prophets It is true indeed there are some Predictions in the Book of Psalms but they are not of that sort of Predictions that proceed from Inspiration or Revelation as were those of Isaiah David never says Thus saith the Lord nor is it said in his History that in his time he passed for a Prophet It only happen'd that in speaking of his own Person he spoke things that agreed not so much to himself as to the Messiah of whom he was unknown to himself the Type But I have already handl'd this sort of Prophecy It may be said perhaps that Christ has acknowledg'd for divinely inspir'd all the Books of the Old Testament and that for that reason alone all Christians ought to be of that belief But there is not any Passage in the Gospel where Christ tells us that all the Books of the Old Testament were inspir'd by God both as to the Words and Things He approves them only in gross without descending to particulars and examining every Book by it self It was sufficient that there were divers Prophecies in the Old Testament the Authority whereof was receiv'd among the Jews that pointed at him Our Saviour never undertook to make a Critical Treatise upon the sacred Books nor to clear the Historical Differences in them His design was not to make us able Critics but good Men and to bring us to render to God the Obedience due to him He omitted nothing that might instruct us in our Duty but he never trouble himself to correct certain Errors of small importance which might be among the Jews And if we must take all the words of Christ when he speaks of the Scripture in a strict sense as if he acknowledg'd the Books he cites to be all inspir'd even to the least syllable and the others on the contrary to be excluded out of the number of the sacred Books we must reject many of those that are commonly reputed inspir'd Neither he nor his Apostles ever cite the Works of Solomon or the Book of Iob except that St. Iames praises the Patience of Iob which to speak properly is not to cite the Book but the History And if we must conclude from thence that all these Books have been wrongfully put into the Jews Canon the common Opinion would be found contrary to the Authority of Christ and of his Apostles These Books then that we have spoken of are not necessarily to be accounted Divine for being in the Canon or Catalogue of the Books of the Jews which Jesus Christ never call'd in question And there is no reason to interpret the word Canonical as if it signified inspir'd of God The Jews put in their Collection all the Fragments they had remaining of their ancient Books they left out none because they had no others It was all their Library the rest having been lost in the Captivity or before or after for the Story sets not down the time of that fatal loss They pretended not at first that this Collection consisted of no other but what was divinely inspir'd But in process of time as there were therein many Writings that were truly Prophetic and as these were the only Books that had escap'd the general Loss which had involv'd the rest they began to be look'd on with more respect than they had been at first and at length it came to be believ'd that all these Books that were in the ancient Catalogue were truly divine And whereas before that time Men apply'd themselves to the Observation of what was most considerable in the Law without making many Commentaries from thence forwards they grew nice about the words would take every thing in a strict-sense and by seeking for Mysteries where there were none they abandon'd the most essential part of the Jewish Religion They made the knowledg of Religion to consist in the study of a thousand vain Subtilties and Piety to consist in the scrupulous Observations of Ceremonial Laws according as the Doctors interpreted them This the Pharisees did in our Lord's Time and it is also that which the Divines among the Christians both Ancient and Modern have imitated since the Death of the Apostles In their time Men apply'd themselves to learn their Doctrine without subtilizing about their Expressions and this they did upon the assurance they had that those holy Men taught faithfully what they had learn'd from Christ. Since then it has been the practice to dispute about their Words and to strain to the utmost divers of their Expressions which were not over exact from whence many Factions have been begot amongst Christians who have fall'n foul one upon another about the meaning of some such particular Expressions of the Apostles and have neglected at the same time to obey the Precepts of Jesus Christ that is to say they have abandon'd the inward Substance of Religion to busy themselves about the Outside Men have thought it an Honour to be stil'd that which they call zealous Orthodox to be firmly link'd to a certain Party to load others with Calumnies and to damn by an absolute Authority the rest of Mankind but have taken no care to demonstrate the sincertity and fervor of their Piety by an exact Observation of the Gospel Morals which has come to pass by reason that Orthodoxy agrees very well with our Passions whereas the severe Morals of the Gospel are incompatible with our way of living Thus much by the by to let you see that this great Zeal which Men have for the Letter of the Scripture is but a Cloak they make use of to hide the little esteem they have for the Religion it self of Jesus Christ which consists not in Criticisms or Controversies but in keeping God's Commandments But it will be ask'd then What Authority
though preach'd with never so much Gravity It happens I say that these Persons reject all the Christian Religion because they do not distinguish true Christianity from those Dreams of fanciful Divines It is easy to guess after this what we ought to think of the Authority of the Books of the Old Testament The Prophecies that are in it ought to be believ'd because Christ has authoriz'd them The substance of the History ought also to be believed for the same reason notwithstanding any uncertainty there may be in some inconsiderable Circumstances as it appears there is still some uncertainty by divers Contradictions which the Divines with all their Subtilty have not been able to reconcile after puzling about it above three thousand Years The Doctrines that are in it ought also to be receiv'd so far as they are conformable to those of the Gospel or if you will let us say that the true meaning of the Law is to be learn'd from Christ. No Conclusion is to be drawn from those Books that appear to be only pieces of Wit and Fancy or wherein nothing but Human is to be found such as the Song of Solomon Ecclesiastes c. Lastly we ought not to strain too far the Sense of particular Expressions as do the Jews Because if we except a very few places the Expressions are the same with those which the sacred Writers were wont to make use of in explaining their other Thoughts that is to say they have worded both the Jewish History and the Revelations they had from Heaven after their own ordinary manner of expressing themselves These Sir are the Thoughts of Mr. N. concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Pen-Men I am told he draws from these Principles three Consequences The first is That by admitting this Hypothesis we may terminate many great Disputes among Christians which have risen from the false Subtilty of Divines interpreting too mysteriously the Expressions of the holy Scripture as if every syllable had been dictated by God The second is that whereas by sticking too close to the Letter of the Scripture the Essence of Religion comes to be neglected as if God required no more of us at present but to believe that the holy Scripture is divinely inspir'd instead I say of this Practice it will be found necessary to apply our selves wholly to the obeying Christ's Precepts which is the only thing God indispensably requires from us The third Consequence is that hereby at one blow will be solv'd an infinite number of Difficulties which Libertines are wont to alledg against the holy Scripture and which it is not possible to solve by the ordinary Principles Their Mouths will be stopp'd says Mr. N. and it wil no longer avail them to object against Christians the Contradictions which are found in the Scriptures the lowness of the Stile of the sacred Writers the little Order observ'd to be in many of their Discourses and whatsoever else they have been us'd to say against our Divines who have in vain puzled themselves to answer them By imposing nothing upon these Men as necessary to be believ'd but the Truth of what is most essential in the Histories of the Old and New Testament and the Divinity of our Saviour's Doctrine in which there is nothing that is not conformable to right Reason they will be brought says he to acknowledg that Christian Religion is really descended from Heaven and will be easily inclin'd to embrace that which hitherto they have obstinately rejected because it was grounded on Suppositions repugnant to that Light of Reason by which they are guided I shall not undertake Sir to examine these Consequences nor the Principles from whence they are drawn I promis'd you only a bare account of the Thoughts of Mr. N. And I hope you will use means that some Divine verss'd in these matters may satisfy us both upon this Subject better than I my self am able to do I am c. THE THIRD LETTER YOU have seen Sir to how little purpose it is that Mr. Simon indeavours to defend his particular Opinions as well as those which are common to him with all other Roman-Catholic Doctors You shall see now that he is no happier in going about to play the Critic on two Letters in which he was not concern'd It appears evidently that nothing but the itch he hath of carping at other Mens Writings has made him undertake to examine those Letters For he embraces the greatest part of the Opinions which the Author there maintains And I doubt not but those who have judg'd the Opinions of Mr. N. too bold will be as much scandaliz'd at those of the pious Prior of Bolleville That incomparable Critic maintains at first dash as boldly as if he were assur'd of it by Revelation that he that is call'd Mr. N. is Noel Aubert de Versé which I have told you already is nothing but a Dream of Mr. Simon 's who thinks he may lawfully say any thing that comes in his Head and believes that by boldly affirming it he shall make his Reader be of his Mind That is a Secret of his Rhetoric which he puts in practice as soon as ever he finds himself puzl'd or when he imagines he may thereby worst his Antagonist But by ill fortune he has us'd it so long that his Art being plainly discover'd can no more deceive any body By saying whatever came in his Mind although in truth he did not believe it he has so grosly contradicted himself that he has now lost all Credit with Men of Worth I need therefore return no other answer to the beginning of our Author's XIIth Chap. than by saying that I am sorry his Choler does so much blind him as to make him affirm a Falshood as boldly as the clearest Truth I pray God as I have often done to cure him of a Passion that discomposes him in so deplorable a manner and which may in time render him incapable of serving the Public as he might do if he considered a little more on what he thinks fit to publish I will not spend my Labour singly upon his Remarks for I write not this to satisfy him In the ill Humour he is nothing is so fit to settle his Mind as Time I will therefore but touch on them as I go along when the nature of what I have to say leads me to it Neither is it my design to defend the Opinions of Mr. N. concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Writers Tho I said it was hard to answer his Proofs fully I said not that I was convinc'd On the contrary I propos'd them to the Learned that I might provoke them to examine the matter carefully and might draw from their Observations some further Light than my own Meditations could furnish me with But as Mens Intentions are not interpreted always so favourably as they ought to be I find my self oblig'd that I may satisfy the Scruples of some pious Persons and repel the Calumnies of some Divines
who have more Zeal than Knowledg to answer four sorts of Reflections that are made upon the Treatise concerning Inspiration I. Some Learned Men who approve the Opinions of Mr. N. conceive nevertheless that they ought not to have been publish'd because in their Judgments it is not fit that all Truths should indifferently be communicated to all People There are say they certain things which though good in themselves may easily be apply'd to ill uses and it is better that the Public should be depriv'd of the advantage it might draw from the knowledg of such Truths than be visibly expos'd to the danger of abusing them so lamentably as it would be apt to do II. Others who are of the same Mind in approving the Opinions of Mr. N. believe that since he was willing those his Thoughts should be publish'd he ought to have express'd them more distinctly and above all to have propos'd in the first place the State of the Question between him and the generality of Divines These Gentlemen think that if he had done as they say he had prevented a great many Calumnies which are grounded upon nothing but the Obscurity that is observ'd to be in some places of his Writing III. Some of those who look upon the Opinion of Mr. N. as false Doctrine cannot indure that I should have said It appears not by what Principle it can be overthrown They say that nothing is more easy And to let you see they are in the right they make divers Answers to the Arguments of Mr. N. and propose some Objections which they believe sufficient to refute all he has said IV. Lastly the most hot and the least reasonable of these Objectors affirm that the Opinions of our Friend lead directly to Deism and stick not to accuse him of favouring that abominable Opinion You see Sir to what Heads I am oblig'd to make Answer being of Opinion as I am that it was convenient to publish that Writing concerning Inspiration To begin with the first I acknowledg Sir that what they say is true I grant that all sorts of Truths are not fit to be spoken at all times and on all occasions It is undoubtedly a very ill thing to publish any Truth not necessary to be known how certain soever it may be when we are assur'd that those who shall read or understand it will infallibly be so scandaliz'd at it that the knowledg thereof will produce more hurt than good On such occasions Christian Prudence indispensably obliges us to the contrary The Question is not then Whether the Maxim of these Gentlemen be true or not In that we are agreed But my Opinion was that this Writing of Mr. N. would do infinitely more good than hurt and I dare yet maintain that in the Times wherin we live it is very fit that such Matters as these be throughly examin'd without concealing from the Public any of the Difficulties that attend them You know Sir that most of the Sciences being arriv'd in this our Age to a greater degree of Perfection than formerly though from thence it might be expected that such Improvements should have render'd Christians so much the more wise and more judicious yet on the contrary Libertinism and Impiety have prevail'd more scandalously than ever The Libertines of former Ages profess'd their Opinions only in some extravagant Sallies of Wit or Debauchery and oppos'd the Christian Religion only by some insipid Railleries which could have no weight with any Persons of sound Judgment and unbiass'd Affections But the Libertines of our Times make use of their Philosophy and Criticism to overthrow the most sacred and most solid Doctrines of our Religion Divers impious Books have been publish'd not only in Latin but also in French in English and in Dutch which many unlearned Persons read with much greediness Abundance of People are fond of Spinoza's Opinions because they have read his Books in French in English and in Dutch though they never study'd Philosophy nor Criticism We are in Times wherein every body pretends to depth of Learning freedom of Thought and strength of Judgment and this Reputation is easily acquir'd by reading those Books But that which renders this yet more deplorable is that it is not a Disease of Youth that Men grow out of as they advance in Years They whose Minds are once tainted with these unhappy Opinions do very seldom get quit of them This is undoubtedly a great Mischief and to which those who are any ways able to bring Remedy are oblig'd to do it It has been endeavoured to overthrow the Authority of the holy Scriptures by making appear that the Stile of the sacred Writers was not inspir'd and that they did not receive every thing they said from immediate Inspiration And in effect it has happen'd that many People have hereupon believ'd that the Authority of the Scripture was intirely ruin'd And imagining that the Reasons brought by Spinoza to prove this Opinion were unanswerable they have fall'n into Deism or into Atheism What Remedy Sir for this For my part I confess I see but one of these three Either a way must be found to burn all the Copies of these impious Books that have corrupted so many Men and to blot out of Mens Memory the Arguments of these Libertines or else there must solid Demonstration be made of the Falsity of the Arguments they make use of to maintain their Opinions Or lastly in granting to them that the sacred Pen-Men were not inspir'd neither as to the Stile nor as to those things which they might know otherwise than by Revelation it must be yet demonstrated that the Authority of the Scriptures ought not for all that to be esteemed less considerable It is plain that the first of these three is absolutely impossible and that tho an Inquisition should now be settl'd in France in England and in Holland it would already be too late There is then no other means left to cure this Libertinism that is spread so wide but one of the two last propos'd Remedies For my part I could wish with all my Heart that some body would try the second and would make it evident that God has inspir'd the sacred Authors not only with the matter they have spoken about but also with the very Expressions But since no body has yet done nor that I know undertaken to do it why should it be ill taken that Mr. N. has made use of the third method or that I have publish'd his Writing It is true there are some who believe that it were better to hold ones peace in a matter so delicate than to run the hazard of giving scandal to others by contradicting the Opinions which they think most reasonable This indeed would be very well if Libertines also forbore writing or if no body read their Books But since it is otherwise such silence is not at all seasonable If any weak Minds take Offence without Reason at what is offer'd there are an
Spirit is also ambiguous for either it signifies as I have taken it a certain divine Inspiration which both the ordinary Prophets had and sometimes David and Daniel or it signifies a pious Motion or Faculty stirring a Man up to utter useful Precepts relating to Human Life or Political or Civil Matters Thus Maimonides interprets the word Holy Spirit where he treats of those Historical and Moral Writings If Luke had written by the dictating of the Holy Spirit he would have fetch'd his Authority from thence as the Prophets do rather than from Witnesses whose Credit he follows c. Rivet was mightily scandalized or at least seem'd to be so at an answer so contradictory to the common Opinions But Grotius explain'd himself yet more clearly and strongly in his Refutation of Rivet 's Apology Grotius says he himself willingly acknowledges that the Prophets who were commanded by God to write or speak did write and spoke by Inspiration from him His Opinion is also the same as to the Apocalyse and the Predictions made by the Apostles He esteems it the highest Impiety to make any doubt that all that was said by Iesus Christ was said by God himself Concerning the Historical Writings and the Moral Sentences of the Hebrews he is of another Opinion He thinks it sufficient to believe that they were written out of a pious Intention and with great Ingenuity and concerning matters of highest importance c. Neither Esdras nor Luke were Prophets but grave and prudent Men who neither were minded to deceive nor would suffer themselves to be deceived Did Luke say The Word of the Lord came to Luke and the Lord said to him write as the Prophets us'd to say Nothing like it What then For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a Declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us He says not that by Command but by the Example of others he was induced to write Even as they delivered them to us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word viz. Mary the Mother of our Lord other of his Kinsmen the Apostles the seventy Disciples and the Saints that had been rais'd again by Iesus many Witnesses of his Resurrection It seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first c. Vnderstanding how acquir'd From Eye-witnesses not by Revelation To write not things dictated but in order The Prophets then had another sort of Impulse than Luke whose good Design nevertheless may be ascrib'd to the Holy Spirit After the Death of Grotius there came out a third Answer of Rivert's wherein he strives to defend the common Opinion against his famous Antagonist It appears plainly by the manner of his answering that he believ'd that the Holy Spirit had dictated the Scripture word for word and this Opinion is known to be the common Opinion of Protestants who on all occasions call the sacred Writers Amanuenses of the holy Spirit Nay even Catholick Authors Gregory de Valence Bellarmin Tolet and Estius cited by Rivet seem to have been of the same Opinion Cornelius à Lapide whom Mr. Simon cites holds the same concerning the Law and the Prophets though he confesses it was not necessary that God should dictate the words when it was only matter of History or of Moral Precepts which might be known otherways So that it may be reasonably suppos'd that the greatest part of Christian Divines now adays are of the Opinion of verbal Inspiration if we may so call it since there are very few that say the contrary and those who do say it only of some Books as Cornelius à Lapide Every body knows that not only in Sermons but also in Divinity-Lectures upon any part of Scripture some Men strangely wire-draw the Words of the Scripture and seek after Reasons why the holy Spirit as they speak makes use of one Expression rather than another The same thing they do also in Commentaries Which would be altogether absurd if my Supposition were admitted that the Stile of the Scriptures is for the most part human and even careless enough But this is because they commonly take the Opinion of the Jews for granted who have a Proverb or general Maxim concerning the Books of the Law in which they believe all to be inspir'd even to a single Letter that there is not a Letter in the Law whereon there depends not great Mountains I am very glad however that Mr. Simon declares himself openly of the same Opinion with me concerning the Stile of the sacred Writers I wish all Protestants would do the same We should then soon be free from many Disputes that are grounded upon nothing but Grammatical Subtilties We should then perceive that we ought not rigorously to insist upon a great many Expressions in the utmost extent of their Signification as if the sacred Pen-Men had spoken with the same Exactness as do Geometricians We should then understand that no Doctrines which we esteem important ought to be grounded barely upon certain manners of speaking which we cannot be sure were exact because the sacred Writers not affecting exactness of Stile may have used that manner of Expression without any design Such is the Doctrine of the antecedent Imputation of the Sin of Adam which is founded upon the Comparison St. Paul makes Chap. V. of the Epistle to the Romans between the Grace that came by Jesus Christ and the Sin that entred into the World by Adam Men stretch this Comparison with too much Rigor not considering that St. Paul's Stile is the Stile of one that observes little Exactness in his Expressions although in the main his Arguments are admirable and that the laying too great stress upon the turn of his Phrases may expose us to the hazard of falling into gross Error The general Design that he proposes to himself ought only to be stuck to without insisting particularly upon every term and every distinct Period which taken separately and strictly may oft-times prove contrary to what he drives at Those who are a little conversant in the Disputes amongst Protestants will easily see the importance of this Remark The ingenuous Acknowledgment of what there is of Human in the sacred Writings would render the Truth of our Religion more conspicuous to the Eyes of the incredulous whereas it is hid from them by clothing it in certain Notions which common Sense makes them reject and from among which they are not able to pick out the Heavenly Truths Men fancy that for the Establishment of Religion it is requisite to maintain every thing or any thing that if true would be an invincible Proof of it they cast therefore about in their own Minds for such Foundations as they conceive would make it most stable With this their Brain becomes so heated that in the end they rashly assert that these are the real Foundations of Religion and that if these be taken
first Person Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption c. adds that this cannot be understood of David since he was dead and rotten many Years ago but that as he was a Prophet and knew that God had sworn with an Oath to him that of the Fruit of his Loins he would raise up Christ to sit upon his Throne he seeing this before-hand spake of the Resurrection of Christ when he said that his Soul c. by which it appears that David speaking in the first Person knew nevertheless that he spoke not concerning himself Answer I did not say that David never prophesy'd in speaking of himself as of a Type of the Messiah or that he understood not that in the properest and highest sense of his Words he spake concerning the Messiah though what he said had also some relation to himself I make no question but there are in the Psalms divers Prophecies of this nature It is plain David could not say of himself unless in a very Metaphorical Sense that God would not leave his Soul in Hell nor suffer his Holy One to see Corruption although the rest of the Psalm may be suitable enough to him Objection 3. The Curses in the CIXth Psalm are imputed to a human Passion yet St. Peter teaches us Acts I. 20. that it is a Prophecy It seems the better way therefore to take all those Curses for simple Predictions and not for Imprecations and so to translate in the Future Tense Thou shalt set a wicked Man over him and his Adversary shall c. Answer This might be a Prophecy of that sort which we said were sometimes pronounc'd without their being aware who pronounc'd it of which we brought some Examples which sort of Prophecy is not inconsistent with a violent Passion as appears by the Example of Caiaphas But indeed these Expressions cannot be translated in the future Tense without extream violence to the Text and accordingly the ancient Interpreters as well as modern have made use of the Imperative or Optative Mood Nor ought it to seem strange that we think there was in this an Excess of Passion since it is impossible to explain any other way those words of Psalm CXXXVII Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the Stones c. Let any one compare the words of Psal. CIX with those which a Heathen Poet puts into the Mouth of a desperate Woman Vivat per urbes erret ignotas egens Exul pavens invisus incerti laris quoque non aliud queam Pejus precari liberos similes Patri Similesque Matri In fine if it were necessary to render all these words in the future Tense to avoid making the Psalmist pronounce such Curses there are a great many other places where the Version would need to be reform'd and where we should be oblig'd to strain the Text as may easily be perceiv'd in turning over the Book of Psalms Objection 4. It has been said that Inspiration seems not absolutely necessary to the composing of pious Hymns and concluded from thence that it ought not to be said that all such Hymns were immediately inspir'd The same sort of Argument has been applied also afterwards to divers other places of Scripture But it no ways follows because Inspiration was not absolutely necessary that therefore there was none Answer My Argument proves not directly that there was no Inspiration on these occasions but only that there was nothing in the thing it self to induce us to believe that there was any and consequently that such Inspiration is suppos'd without any necessity When a thing may be done by the ordinary course of Nature we ought not to have recourse to Miracles Hence I conclude that there ought to be no recourse to Inspiration when there is nothing in a Book to make us believe it was inspir'd and when all that is in it might have been said without Inspiration unless we have some positive Proof that he who compos'd it was inspir'd Now I maintain that there is no Proof of this nature sufficient to perswade us that all the Books of the Scripture were inspir'd in the same manner that they are commonly said to have been Objection 5. It has been inferr'd from the evident marks of Meditation and Pains taking which appear in several places of the Scripture as those where the Verses begin with all the Letters of the Alphabet in order that those places have not been inspir'd But it does not appear that Inspiration excludes all sort of Meditation and Pains-taking as Mr. Simon has observ'd c. Resp. p. 125 c. Answer I acknowledg that it cannot from thence be concluded that the matter was not inspir'd nor was this Argument made use of but only against those who hold the Inspiration of the very words that is to say principally against the generality of Protestant Divines There is certainly little likelihood that the Spirit of God would inspire such things as those But the Consequence I have drawn from thence is only this that the Stile not being inspir'd we cannot be sure that the things are unless the Characters of Inspiration appear in those things themselves or that we have otherwise some positive Proof of it Objection 6. What has been said concerning the Inspiration of the sacred Historians is not enough There ought to have been added also as Mr. Simon has it That God directed the Pen of the sacred Historians in such a manner that they could not fall into Error They were Men that wrote and the Spirit that directed them depriv'd them not of their Reason nor their Memory to inspire them with matters of Fact which they themselves knew perfectly but it determin'd them in general to write of some matters rather than others though they knew both alike well Resp. p. 128. Answer This may be granted provided that by directing the Pen of the sacred Historians be only understood the determining them in general to write of some matters rather than others though they knew both alike well Mr. Simon fights here with his own Shadow for no body deny'd that On the contrary it was said that the sacred Historians have writ of no matter whereof they were not well instructed And this in opposition to those who pretend that the Historians of the Bible were inspir'd with the matters in the same manner as if they could not have known them any other way But these People would condemn Mr. Simon as well as me Objection 7. It is suppos'd without any Reason that there are sometimes real Contradictions amongst the sacred Historians whereas they are but seeming ones The Learned have reconcil'd them all not excepting that about the Death of Iudas which is cited as an Example of a manifest Contradiction Answer To answer this Objection fully it would be requisite not only to quote the places where 't is believ'd there is some little Contradiction but also
be not true it must of necessity be that they have gone about to deceive us For Example they could not be mistaken in Christ's Ascension into Heaven which they have constantly affirm'd and of which the Christians from the very beginning have made one of the chief Articles of their Faith Those who as Pliny reports sung Hymns to Jesus Christ as to a God believ'd without doubt that Christ was ascended into Heaven And indeed I cannot but think that any who will take the Pains to read only the Gospel of St. Luke and the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians where are related the Circumstances of many of the Miracles of Christ and particularly of his Resurrection and after that of his appearing divers times unto the Disciples must certainly agree that those who spoke after that manner were not seduced and that if what they say be not true of necessity they must have design'd to deceive those to whom they related these matters Now it has been shown demonstratively that the Apostles were very sincere Persons And those who 〈◊〉 to admit their Testimonies do not tax them of having been deceived Nor do they undertake to oppose directly the Reasons by which we prove their Sincerity They content themselves in making Objections upon the nature of Miracles and so reduce themselves to the second way of knowing the Falshood of a matter of Fact which consists in showing that the thing related is in it self absolutely impossible I cannot ingage my self here in the Examination of their Reasons neither is it necessary It is sufficient to observe in general that all the Arguments with which Spinoza and those that follow his Opinions do dispute against Miracles are not comparable in evidence and force to the Principles we have establish'd These Men endeavour to show that the extraordinary Effects of the Divine Power which we call Miracles may be the necessary Consequences of some of the Laws of Nature to us unknown and that they are no more to be made use of as Proofs in this matter than those which occur daily in the ordinary course of Nature They bring also some Metaphysical Arguments to show that every thing comes to pass necessarily But all this overthrows not the direct Proofs which we have brought of the Truth of these Events and which are infinitly more clear than their Reasons which no body can understand as perhaps neither do they themselves But there is no danger that they should perswade any Man that the Resurrection of a dead Body or the Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven could happen as naturally as the Birth of a Man into the World As long as the direct Proofs of the Truth of those matters of Fact hold good no Man will be perswaded that the Miracles which the Apostles relate are natural Effects of certain Laws of Nature unknown to Men Because it will presently be ask'd Why then are no more of these Effects produced How could Jesus Christ know that after he was buried he should rise again and ascend into Heaven And how came it to pass at that instant that he commanded a lame or a Paralytic Man to go c. that the Laws of Nature unknown to us were prepared and ready to cause the lame or Paralytic Man to walk It is plain then that the Philosophical Difficulties alledg'd against the Testimony of the Apostles are not of so great force as the Arguments we have brought to confirm it nor can they rake place so long as a Man is perswaded of the Sincerity of the first Disciples of Jesus Christ. And the truth is that those who make these Objections do take this course only because they cannot possibly alledg any thing against the matters of Fact which we have prov'd They indeavour to confound the Minds of their Admirers by obscure Metaphysical Arguments and Suppositions which they cannot prove and which they assert nevetheless to be common Notions This being so it cannot be doubted that Christ Jesus was extraordinarily favoured by God And as it cannot be suppos'd with any colour of Reason that God would work Miracles in favour of an Impostor it must necessarily be acknowledged that he was a Teacher sent from Heaven to set Men right that were gone astray and consequently that his Doctrine is true But I will not insist upon this Consequence as well because it is evident in it self as because many Learned Men already have thoroughly handled it I will add only this Reflection before I end viz. That we have no Reason to suspect that Jesus Christ himself designed to deceive us Because all the Reasons brought to prove the Sincerity of the Apostles are as strong in respect of him as of them To be convinc'd of this we need but apply to him both as to his Person and Doctrine all that has been said concerning the Apostles All the Religion which he taught Men and which we find in the Gospels tends only to bring us to the Observation of the most holy and most admirable Morals that can possibly be imagin'd And he could have no other Interest in the Establishment thereof than what we all have that is the universal Welfare of all Men. Thus then you see the Christian Religion establish'd after an invincible manner without supposing any Inspiration in the Histories of our Lord and his Apostles There remains nothing more to be added but that to apprehend the Truth of all our Proofs it is necessary only that we have the same Disposition of Mind towards the Apostles that we have towards any Person whose Sincerity is very well known to us and whom we could not refuse to believe when he should assure us of a thing he had seen and heard and in which it is morally impossible that he should be deceived The chief thing then is to be well assur'd of the Integrity of the Apostles which is easy to be done in following the Method we have described Otherwise while we attend not to the Reasons which give Evidence thereunto we shall never be sufficiently sensible of the strength of the other Arguments that may be brought to prove the Divine Original of our Religion I intreat you Sir to examine what I have said exactly and to let me know if I have been to blame in affirming that we may be perfectly assured of the Truth of Christianity without believing the History of the New Testament to be inspir'd If I would have treated of this Subject thoroughly I must have compos'd a Book not writ a Letter But what I have said is sufficient to let you see that our Friend is not with any sort of Justice to be suspected of Irreligion upon the account of his not believing the Inspiration of the Scriptures as it is commonly believed I am c. FINIS The chief Errors of the Press which the Reader is desired to correct are in Page 63. Line for Read 17 It is not likely It is apparent 21 should would 22 with